RIVERSIDE: Officers who killed pipe-wielding man won’t be prosecuted

Three Riverside police officers who shot a pipe-wielding man to death a year ago will not be prosecuted despite family members’ protests of excessive force.

The Riverside County district attorney’s office will not seek charges against officers Ramon Espinoza, Jeff Putnam and Paul Miranda in the death of David Ledezma, spokesman John Hall said Friday, Jan. 11. The decision was actually made Oct. 31, but the DA’s office does not announce such decisions unless an inquiry is made, as The Press-Enterprise did this week.

Riverside police Lt. Guy Toussaint said the internal investigation to determine whether the officers acted within department policy is still ongoing. The officers are on duty.

On Jan. 7, 2012, the officers went to Ledezma’s home on Cypress Avenue after someone reported that Ledezma had struck his wife.

Police said that during a rapidly developing encounter, Ledezma, 52, held a knife to his throat and threatened to stab himself before dropping it to the ground as officers had demanded.

He then threw a metal pipe in their direction, causing them to dodge the object. Then Ledezma picked up another pipe and raised it over his shoulder and moved toward officers, according to police. That's when one officer fired a Taser, but wind caused the electrical probe to miss Ledezma, who was about 20 feet away.

All three officers then fired, killing Ledezma, police said.

Since that time, family members have protested at least four times on city streets, holding signs and using a bullhorn to shout to passers-by. They say police could have arrested Ledezma without shooting him.

There appear to be two sides to Ledezma, who was married with four adult children.

“He was Papa David to the kids in the neighborhood,” daughter Valerie Hernandez said in a 2012 interview. “He just showed a lot of love.”

But in 2002, he was convicted of battery on a spouse and sentenced to 440 days in the county jail. He failed to complete an anger-management program, court records show. In 1993, Ledezma was convicted of battery, and his probation was revoked after he did not complete an anger-management program. Two years earlier, a charge of battery on a police officer or emergency worker was dismissed.

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